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Tail light wiring woes

When I said to check the brown and green wires I meant to put voltmeter connections 1 on the brown and the other on the green and see if he has 12v there.
 
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From the link..........

'Trouble is, at least in US bikes, there is no feeder from the START button for this wire. '

I already picked up on that likelihood last night by rereading your posts.

Myself, I would be copying the most likely rule of wiring there, the OEM schematic, it is incompetent not to do so (thank you Emgo, just one more of many reasons not to use your parts) as it will lead to later problems with new owners or same owner when he has forgotten what got done before, like here with you. No insult intended at all of course, myself I tend to mess with out of spec electrical from time to time and I for one have to have a reliable method of knowing where I was a month or a year later even if I have to draw the new schematic myself and put it with my wiring books. I do that a lot when making up circuits that do not exist previously, and one could always do that if they are going to change things up. Simply saying 'I will remember it' has cost a lot of people a lot of time, like here.

So, a new harness that is essentially unuseable, oh yeah, that'll be making some cussin'....................that fits right in there with the Emgo ignition switch lower assemblies that fall apart to strand you the first time you use them.
 
sadly when I bought my bike 10 years ago they had the same fix in the harness so they have been making them this way for quite some time . when I took off the old fairing it had on it I found the PO had hacked up the wiring quite a bit and had added some wiring of his own. I went to a well known website that advertised a wiring harness for the year and make of my bike and clicked buy it. You think when they sell it as the wiring harness for your bike it would be plug and play (especially when it was over $120). obviously it wasn't and had to find the answer to the problem without doing a ton of rewiring a new harness. especially when you buy it to clean up a mess By adding the jumper and getting the fuses right my harness is working fine. I can see that Ray has gotten the same issue and I am trying to provide him with the solution I have found that took care of mine. Cause I know it drove me crazy for a few days checking continuity and voltages . Once it's done it shouldn't need to be revisited again, but as you said it wouldn't hurt to put a note attached to the manual to remind you of it.
 
I have run into that type of issue before with the cars and cheap international parts, sometimes you have to rewire certain legs of circuits due to changes made in error or for other reasons, or other model harnesses adapted to one not intended for it.

Since you have already been there with this issue I should probably leave you two alone to figure it out to avoid further confusion. 3 in an electrical discussion often makes it worse.

Luck to you both...........
 
I have run into that type of issue before with the cars and cheap international parts, sometimes you have to rewire certain legs of circuits due to changes made in error or for other reasons, or other model harnesses adapted to one not intended for it.

Since you have already been there with this issue I should probably leave you two alone to figure it out to avoid further confusion. 3 in an electrical discussion often makes it worse.

Luck to you both...........
The harness was used, from my exact bike. All the bends in the loom bent at exactly the correct place to connect to my existing. I've cut back all the covering protective plastic and haven't found any nicked or cut wires except for the horn wire. It was cut but in splicing it together the horn worked. All lighting works that should except the taillight, all gages work. All dash lights work, blinkers, brake, high low beam.
I'm taking a couple days break on this and will play again soon. BTW replaced new key/ignition with old (had a key made for $25 from code on cylinder) made no difference but I like it better.

 
Ray the harness you replaced it with is fine, it is probably a replacement harness like the one I had on mine, at some point the maker of the harness put in the color stripes to discern which 2 wires went to each of the fuses instead of having 4 brown wires and 2 reds at the fuse box. But they did not have the brown\blue connected like before.
Now that you have the jumper in you will want to check all of your fuses. 1 will probably be blown. If it is the 5 amp put a 7.5 amp fuse in it. If it is the 7.5 put a 10 amp fuse in. That should take care of the issue. Let me know when you get a chance to play with it again. You are near done 😉
 
Ray the harness you replaced it with is fine, it is probably a replacement harness like the one I had on mine, at some point the maker of the harness put in the color stripes to discern which 2 wires went to each of the fuses instead of having 4 brown wires and 2 reds at the fuse box. But they did not have the brown\blue connected like before.
Now that you have the jumper in you will want to check all of your fuses. 1 will probably be blown. If it is the 5 amp put a 7.5 amp fuse in it. If it is the 7.5 put a 10 amp fuse in. That should take care of the issue. Let me know when you get a chance to play with it again. You are near done [emoji6]
Okay, all the fuses work. I put a meter inside the 5 wire connector to the ignition while it was plugged in and used the battery ground . I might add that I have 2 ignitions and I tried both. There's 12 volts to the black and red, when I turn the switch on there's 2V to the 2 browns or the br/white.
Everything works but the taillight. Parking still works. And obviously there's no power to the brown 4 wire solder split pictured here. Dimmer works, signals, brake and all dash lights.
There's 3 wires at the bucket that don't connect to anything- solid brown, green w red and brown w blue. Just like my schematic says. Grrr
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Okay, all the fuses work. I put a meter inside the 5 wire connector to the ignition while it was plugged in and used the battery ground . I might add that I have 2 ignitions and I tried both. There's 12 volts to the black and red, when I turn the switch on there's 2V to the 2 browns or the br/white.
Everything works but the taillight. Parking still works. And obviously there's no power to the brown 4 wire solder split pictured here. Dimmer works, signals, brake and all dash lights.
There's 3 wires at the bucket that don't connect to anything- solid brown, green w red and brown w blue. Just like my schematic says. Grrr
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I think I'm just gonna run a jumper from a keyed circuit to the taillight. Suggestions?

 

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Ray the harness you replaced it with is fine, it is probably a replacement harness like the one I had on mine, at some point the maker of the harness put in the color stripes to discern which 2 wires went to each of the fuses instead of having 4 brown wires and 2 reds at the fuse box. But they did not have the brown\blue connected like before.
Now that you have the jumper in you will want to check all of your fuses. 1 will probably be blown. If it is the 5 amp put a 7.5 amp fuse in it. If it is the 7.5 put a 10 amp fuse in. That should take care of the issue. Let me know when you get a chance to play with it again. You are near done [emoji6]
Okay, all the fuses work. I put a meter inside the 5 wire connector to the ignition while it was plugged in and used the battery ground . I might add that I have 2 ignitions and I tried both. There's 12 volts to the black and red, when I turn the switch on there's 2V to the 2 browns or the br/white.

Everything works but the taillight. Parking still works. And obviously there's no power to the brown 4 wire solder split pictured here. Dimmer works, signals, brake and all dash lights.

There's 3 wires at the bucket that don't connect to anything- solid brown, green w red and brown w blue. Just like my schematic says. Grrr
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Okay, all the fuses work. I put a meter inside the 5 wire connector to the ignition while it was plugged in and used the battery ground . I might add that I have 2 ignitions and I tried both. There's 12 volts to the black and red, when I turn the switch on there's 2V to the 2 browns or the br/white.

Everything works but the taillight. Parking still works. And obviously there's no power to the brown 4 wire solder split pictured here. Dimmer works, signals, brake and all dash lights.

There's 3 wires at the bucket that don't connect to anything- solid brown, green w red and brown w blue. Just like my schematic says. Grrr
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Okay, I hope to get a comment soon. Maybe the 5 wire connector that goes into the ignition is damaged. It looks fine but maybe it was stepped on. I have another connector but I'd obviously need to cut the wires. I have posi-lock wire connectors. Water tight and easy to use. What do you think. The brown to the park lights work but brown to the running doesn't. Brown /white to the gages also don't work....

 

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sorry, Got busy over the weekend. on mine there is only the brown wire in the headlight bucket that is not connected and it shows that in your wiring diagram. The One brown with blue tracer wire goes to your turn signal buzzer, which you mentioned you do not have so that would be for that. That Brown/Blue wire should be in the harness that goes to your turn signal switch. Is that the way yours is?
the green w/ red tracer will be part of your starter switch/ neutral switch light circuit, which harness is the gr/red wire you have left coming out of? you should have 2 green/red wires in your headlight bucket from the main harness, 1 goes to the clutch lever switch and the second goes to your neutral light. took the headlight off late last night to check again for you.
On the Brown/Blue you have 12v on both sides of the fuse?
 
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Okay, I hope to get a comment soon. Maybe the 5 wire connector that goes into the ignition is damaged. It looks fine but maybe it was stepped on. I have another connector but I'd obviously need to cut the wires. I have posi-lock wire connectors. Water tight and easy to use. What do you think. The brown to the park lights work but brown to the running doesn't. Brown /white to the gages also don't work....

I would not do that as the jumper that you put from the black to the brown blue has already made the switched connection. which has power to your fuse in the tailight circuit.
 
I would not do that as the jumper that you put from the black to the brown blue has already made the switched connection. which has power to your fuse in the tailight circuit.
Ya, I've thrown in the towel. Found someone on Craigslist that's says they know old Hondas well. Gonna come by on Friday. I'll let you know.

 
Ya, I've thrown in the towel. Found someone on Craigslist that's says they know old Hondas well. Gonna come by on Friday. I'll let you know.
I sent them a pic of the bike w the tank off and they replied that they don't work on disassembled bikes. I said I'd put the tank back on and start it for them but it was easier to access the wires with the tank off and they said they don't work on disassembled bikes.
So, at the ignition I have red that is always hot. Turn the key and black and red are hot but the brown and brown /white aren't hot and they should be, right??

 
Switch has 3 positions, off, on running, and park. On running (ON 1) connects the red to black and the brown to brown/white but the latter connection does NOT have power, it gets supplied elsewhere. Meaning on running the two browns will NOT have power IF considering ignition switch ONLY. See what I mean by exact details killing you? Third position park (ON 2) connects the red to brown and then that brown only will have power, not the brown/white. Black does not either there.

The brown to brown/white gets power elsewhere, the ignition switch in that case only connects the two to pass that power further down the system. It in and of itself does not supply either of the browns with power.
 
Switch has 3 positions, off, on running, and park. On running (ON 1) connects the red to black and the brown to brown/white but the latter connection does NOT have power, it gets supplied elsewhere. Meaning on running the two browns will NOT have power IF considering ignition switch ONLY. See what I mean by exact details killing you? Third position park (ON 2) connects the red to brown and then that brown only will have power, not the brown/white. Black does not either there.

The brown to brown/white gets power elsewhere, the ignition switch in that case only connects the two to pass that power further down the system. It in and of itself does not supply either of the browns with power.
Thanks. That helps a lot. I'll look elsewhere. I can almost see the wiring schematic when I close my eyes. All the fuses are powered.

 
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